FRAUD SUMMARY - PRAIA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRAIA 000178 SIPDIS DEPT FOR CA/FPP DHS FOR CIS/FDNS FRANKFURT FOR RCO RON PACKOWITZ PLEASE PASS TO KCC WILLIAMSBURG KY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KFRD CVIS CPAS CMGT ASEC CV SUBJECT: FRAUD SUMMARY - PRAIA REF: STATE 057623 PRAIA 00000178 001.2 OF 004 ¶1. (U) Per reftel, the following is Embassy Praia's semi-annual fraud reporting cable covering March 2009 to August 2009. Responses are keyed to reftel. ¶2. (U) A. COUNTRY CONDITIONS: Cape Verde is an archipelago located 500 kilometers west of Senegal. Cape Verde gained its independence from Portugal in 1975, but the Cape Verdean political and legal systems continue to have many similarities to its former colonial ruler. It is a politically stable country that has held multiparty elections every five years since the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) relinquished its one party rule in 1991. Official corruption remains quite low in Cape Verde but is anecdotally on the rise. In comparison to its West African neighbors, Cape Verde is relatively wealthy with an estimated per capita annual income in 2008 of $3,800 USD. In 2008, Cape Verde graduated from being a low-income development country to a middle-income development country. Due to its extremely arid climate, less than 10% of the land is arable. As a result, Cape Verde imports most food and other products. Cape Verde is not economically self-sufficient and is heavily reliant on foreign aid and remittances sent from its diaspora in the U.S. and Europe. Cape Verde has a long history of immigration to the U.S. which continues today. The Cape Verdean community in the U.S. is estimated to be between 350,000 and 500,000 with the overwhelming majority in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Cape Verdean population in the U.S. rivals or exceeds the total number of Cape Verdeans in the archipelago. There are many Americans permanently residing in Cape Verde, estimates range from 2000 to 4000. In the summer months, there may be more than 10,000 Cape Verdean-Americans in country. Nearly all American citizens in Cape Verde are dual nationals or have access to dual nationality. These AmCits are, for the most part, from two demographic groups: young children and senior citizens. Moreover, the AmCit children are either (1) children of retired naturalized AmCit fathers and much younger Cape Verdean mothers or (2) children born to Cape Verdean mothers while temporarily in the U.S. on non-immigrant visitor visas and paid for with public medical assistance. Most of the adult AmCits in Cape Verde are naturalized Americans who have returned to their home islands of Fogo or Brava for retirement. ¶B. NIV FRAUD: Praia is a low fraud post that had a NIV case load of approximately 3500 NIVs for FY2009. More than 90% of all NIVs are B1/B2s, and the next largest category, comprising approximately 3% of the workload, is K fiance visas. In FY2009, post adjudicated few student visas: 79 F visas and 16 J visas, and even fewer employment-based visas: 0 H visas, 0 L visas, 1 O visa (for a local musician to tour with Jimmy Buffett),and 18 P visas. The workload from March 2009 to August 2009 remained constant with the same time period last year. Most NIV fraud in Praia relates to B1/B2 visas and is not particularly sophisticated. Applicants for student visas do not commit fraud on a large scale. Some student applicants try to use student visas as means to "expedite" the immigrant process for petitions that are not yet current. Other student visa applicants are simply interested in any means for an extended stay in the U.S. In these cases, they are applicants who do not have a relative who is eligible to file an immigrant petition for them (i.e., aunts, uncles, or cousins) but who are enrolled in classes and offered room and board, with the applicant knowing very few details about the school or study program. With respect to visitor visas, most NIV fraud consists of fake job letters. These are usually easy to catch because the salary does not match the job or the applicant's level of education does not match the job requirements. Post received several turnaround reports relating to LPRs with criminal convictions but few, if any, for persons traveling on nonimmigrant visas. Moreover, conoff personally consulted with DHS/CBP in Boston in January 2009, and DHS reported that they had few refused admissions or adverse actions for the TACV flight from Praia to Boston. Third country nationals comprised roughly 6 percent of Praia's NIV cases in FY2009. Of the third country national cases, the largest percentage of cases were from China followed by the West African nations of Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Senegal. So far, no fake Chinese documents have been detected. Applicants from West African countries cases, however, are among our most suspicious and the most likely to have fraudulent national PRAIA 00000178 002.2 OF 004 residence cards or other documents. Between March 2009 and September 2009, post adjudicated 10 visas for Chinese nationals in contrast to the 33 applicants over the same period the previous year. Interestingly, in January 2009, a Chinese visa recipient, who flew on the nonstop TACV flight from Praia to Boston, was refused admission by DHS and returned to Cape Verde. Since this incident, post has noticed a sharp reduction in the number of Chinese who show up for their appointments to apply for NIVs. ¶C. IV FRAUD: Over 98 percent of IV cases processed at post are family-based, and nearly every Cape Verdean has some family member in the U.S. Post has identified very little fraud in most family-based IV cases. The biggest concerns among all visa categories are K-1 fiance and CR-2 step child visas. Fraud in these cases is difficult to prove because many times the husband and wife collude to claim a bona fide relationship. Post suspects a high number of cases (perhaps 50 percent or more) are marriages of convenience for immigration purposes. Given the fact that the Cape Verdean community in the U.S. is very tightly knit, many Cape Verdean-Americans will enter into marriages to help out a "friend in need," especially for the sake of the principal beneficiary's children. While formal marriage in Cape Verde is uncommon and most Cape Verdean couples live together for years without ever getting legally married, it is not unusual to see Cape Verdean-Americans married several times. After each divorce, the Cape Verdean-American files another K-1 petition for a new prospective spouse or a CR-2 petition for their spouse's children who were left behind in Cape Verde years earlier. It appears that many Cape Verdean-Americans marry and wait the necessary period of time for a spouse to obtain residency status or U.S. citizenship, divorce the petitioning spouse, and file a petition for a previous lover or parent of their child(ren). Finally, it is very common to see couples with a significant age difference of 20 years or more. Usually, it is an older man and a younger woman, but petitions filed by older women for younger men are also becoming routine. Many of these relationships are first seen in connection with CRBA applications and then later IV petitions, where retired men will develop relationships and procreate with young women in their early- to mid-twenties. ¶D. DV FRAUD: DV cases are rare in Cape Verde. In FY2008, post did not process any DV cases, whereas in FY2009, post received and issued merely 8 DV applicants from three families. ¶E. ACS AND U.S. PASSPORT FRAUD: ACS fraud in Praia is relatively rare. The most suspect cases involve children who were not registered immediately after birth. However, more and more, births are registered at or near the time of the child's birth, but sometimes the birth or paternity of a child was registered a few months or years after the birth or even mere days before the IV interview or CRBA application. In almost all CRBA cases, the biggest issue is the alleged AmCit parent's inability to document the requisite period of physical presence prior to the birth of the child. A birth certificate (available from the Conservatoria dos Registos) is always required for CRBA and IV applications. This birth record includes a complete copy of all the significant events in a person's life from birth to marriage to death. The registry book indicates when a child was registered, the date s/he was registered, and the civil status of the child's parents. Most Embassy LE staff personally know Conservatoria officials who issue vital record documents, so the information can be verified quickly. Cape Verde is also in the process of computerizing these records, and most birth, marriage, and death records are now electronic. Cape Verdeans are astutely aware of U.S. citizenship law and often take advantage of "tourist" visits to have their children in the U.S at the U.S. taxpayer's expense. The children are issued U.S. passports when they are days or weeks old. Five years later when the parents apply for the child's second passport, it is nearly impossible to match the five-year old child with the original passport photo. Using age progression photos and the original passport application in PIERS to verify the parent's signature coupled with questioning of the child, one can often feel relatively certain that the child in the new passport application is the same as the original passport. However, unscrupulous adults and a well-coached child could PRAIA 00000178 003.2 OF 004 potentially fool an officer. ¶F. ADOPTION FRAUD: Adoption cases in Cape Verde are rare but have not appeared to be fraudulent. ¶G. USE OF DNA TESTING: Generally, if a birth or marriage document is suspected to be fraudulent, post verifies its authenticity with local officials. Occasionally, DNA is suggested when the bona fides of a blood relationship cannot otherwise be confirmed. To date, very few applicants have opted against DNA testing, and DNA test results have almost always confirmed the claimed relationship. ¶H. ASYLUM AND OTHER DHS BENEFIT FRAUD: Post has not processed any asylum (Visas 92/93) cases in the past three years. Praia is not aware of any DHS benefits fraud cases. ¶I. ALIEN SMUGGLING, TRAFFICKING, ORGANIZED CRIME, TERRORIST TRAVEL: Narcotics trafficking and alien smuggling are on the rise in Cape Verde, and given the geographical location of Cape Verde in relation to Africa, Europe, North and South America, it is likely to increase. In fact, Cape Verde's Minister of Defense estimated that one-fifth of the world's cocaine supply transits through West Africa. Criminal groups involved in these activities typically are well-funded. It is reasonable to believe that these organizations will use fraudulent documents in support of their criminal activities. In July 2008, the Cape Verdean Coast Guard intercepted a boat with 138 illegal immigrants, including children, who were on their way to Europe via the Canary Islands. In September 2008, the Cape Verdean maritime authorities investigated an empty dugout on the island of Santo Antao. The dugout contained an empty engine that was missing its propeller and which was suspected of being used to transport more illegal immigrants to the Canary Islands for entry into Europe. All suspected illegal immigrants in both cases were sent back to their countries of origin (Guinea, GUINEA Bissau, and Cameroon). In October 2008, the Judiciary Police found 172 kilograms of cocaine in the engine of an old car at the Port of Praia. Five suspects were arrested, one of whom died while in custody (presumed suicide) and another of whom was killed by unknown assailant (but was allegedly killed pursuant to an order by the one who was believed to have committed suicide). All cases remain ongoing. ¶J. DS CRIMINAL FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS: Post does not have a resident RSO or RSO/I and does not have any ongoing local DS criminal fraud investigations. ¶K. HOST COUNTRY PASSPORT, IDENTITY DOCUMENTS, AND CIVIL REGISTRY: Most Cape Verdean documents are relatively simple with little or no fraud prevention features. The two exceptions are: (1) national identification cards and (2) passports. NATIONAL ID CARD: Cape Verde has a national ID card essentially identical to that of Portugal. The front of the national ID card has a picture of the person, the person's fingerprint (right-index finger),and the person's signature. The back of the national ID contains the person's biographic data including his/her father's and mother's names, place of birth, date of birth, and current residence. The ID is laminated to protect it from damage and presumably to avoid photo substitution. National ID fraud appears to be relatively low. However, typos and other errors are more likely to be seen, and applicants are required to amend requisite documents prior to receiving their requested benefit. PASSPORTS: Cape Verdean passport books have a number of fraud prevention features. In the past, passports suffered from poor quality control and lack of standardization. Until recently, each municipality had the authority to issue passports. Each place used its own typewriter to fill in a person's biographic page or hand wrote it, and there was no visible standard passport photo size. Quality control on the placement and adhesion of passport photos was often quite poor. The result was that photos often shifted locations after the laminate was applied to the photo. All of these factors made it next to impossible to detect passport fraud or photo substitution. Beginning in January 2006, the Cape Verdean authorities centralized passport issuance to four locations: Praia on the island of Santiago, Sao Felipe on the island of Fogo, Espargos on the island of Sal, and Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente. For the last several years, the passport authority in Praia has issued machine-readable passports that now contain digitized photos. This centralization of passport issuance services and PRAIA 00000178 004.2 OF 004 the standardization of the biographic data page is a big step forward. Unfortunately, to date, the quality of the digitized photos has been poor but is improving. With respect to how Cape Verdean citizens' names are listed in their passports, generally, domestically-issued passports include only a single final surname on the surname blank, and the given names and any other matronymics or patronymics are on the given name blank. Overseas posts do not generally respect this naming practice, and often list all surnames, matronymics, and patronymics in the surname blank. One other factor that has hindered fraud detection is the length of the validity period of Cape Verdean passports. Although their initial validity is for five years, they may be extended by stamping the inside page with an extended validity date. This may be done up to two times, for five years each, which means that a Cape Verdean citizen may have the same passport photo in his/her passport for up to fifteen years. RESIDENCE DOCUMENTS: Cape Verdean residence documents issued to third country nationals living in Cape Verde are extremely easy to fabricate. A Cape Verdean residence document is a tri-fold piece of green cardstock paper. There is a picture of the individual glued on one page and typewritten text on the rest of the pages. There is no laminate to protect the photo or to prevent photo substitution. In the past, residency cards had to be renewed annually, but a new rule adopted in 2008 allows for the residency cards to be valid for three to five years depending on the length of residence in Cape Verde. ¶L. COOPERATION WITH HOST GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES: Local authorities are generally very cooperative with Embassy requests for information, and they do not view fraud as a victimless crime. However, Cape Verdean immigration police are under-funded, under-trained, and under-equipped. Local authorities would welcome assistance, both training as well as equipment, to assist in fraud detection and prevention. ¶M. AREAS OF PARTICULAR CONCERN: See paragraph I relating to alien smuggling and trafficking. ¶N. STAFFING AND TRAINING: The Consular Section in Praia consists of one full-time consular officer (soon to be adding a second full-time consular officer),one part-time consular officer (with additional POL and PD responsibilities) and four LE Staff, one of whom is designated to assist with fraud prevention. Praia does not have a resident RSO, but has a locally employed FSN Investigator (FSN/I) who assists with fraud investigations. The LE staff member who works on fraud prevention attended PC542 FSN Fraud Prevention Workshop in September/October 2001. Post will request that she attend a future training workshop to update her fraud prevention skills. Cases that have criminal elements or who are suspected of fraud are referred immediately to the FSN/I for investigation. After each investigation, the fraud prevention LE Staff and/or FSN/I meets with the full-time consular officer to report on the result of the investigation. STEWART